October 14, 2011

Album Review: New Found Glory - 'Radiosurgery'

A seventh album that advances the genre not an inch

Album Info

Release Date: October 4, 2011
Producer: Neal Avron
Label: Epitaph
Fact: 'Radiosurgery' was written as a concept album about the different stages an individual goes through after a separation

4 / 10 Surely the return of Blink-182 should’ve been the spark that saw Lock Up Stage also-rans New Found Glory explode from superfluousness. Instead, the Karl Pilkingtons of skate punk release a seventh album that advances the genre not an inch – growing pains bellowed along to ‘gnarly’ guitars and everything else that Charlie Simpson made cringeworthy back in 2003. With pace set to ‘perky’, the occasionally impressive hooks of (oh yes) ‘Summer Fling, Don’t Mean A Thing’ and (oh no) ‘Dumped’ merge into a glossy mud from which nothing to rival ‘All The Small Things’ emerges. And if you’re not aspiring to the benchmark, why bother?

Mark Beaumont